I'm almost certain Microsoft are either going to back away from always-online, or act like they never intended to use it in the first place. I don't believe the next xbox will enforce this sort of thing. There are far too many markets Microsoft can't afford to ignore, where internet is slow, expensive and unreliable. If Microsoft were to go always-online, they stand to lose a massive market share to Sony - who have already confirmed the PS4 will not enforce always-online, and, in keeping with long-standing rhetoric from Sony, will continue to support physical media and dominate Asian markets anyway.

That isn't to say there will never be always-online on PS4 though - it will be left to publishers to choose for themselves. Consider the same for online passes and region coding this gen. The former was widely used, but has been absent from an increasing number of games in the past 24 months. The latter was used for just one PS3 game this gen. I doubt many third-party publishers will take advantage of the always-online option next-gen of PS4. May see a few pop up in the first 12 months, then it will be forgotten.

I don't support DRM beyond something like Steam (which provides an actual service to me so I'm fine with the diet DRM in Steam), especially always on DRM. I won't buy a Nextbox (probably wasn't going to anyways) if this ends up making it into the console, and wouldn't buy any other console this ends up in (such as the PS4 or Wii U, both of which I'm interested in).

There is no service that always on DRM renders to consumers. None. Any argument about piracy is nul, because honest consumers are dealing with the hassle, not pirates. Pirates are finding a way around it and laughing anyways, or just not pirating it and still not purchasing it.

The console games I play to play online with friends who don't have PCs, so it isn't as if internet access requirement is a new thing for my console games. Single player games and games they don't like I play on my computer anyway.

There should be an offline mode for single player games, I definitely agree with that.

I actually don't think that they'll back away from always-online. I think they'll ram it down our throats, the vocal minority (i.e. us) will complain for a while, then we'll see something shiny blowing in the wind and find the next thing to bitch about.

On a more serious note though, what worries me more than DRM is are the rumors about this required Kinect 2 thing. They might be shipping the damn things as standard, but if Microsoft won't let me throw the damn thing in the cupboard, then the 720 is a non-purchase for me. Anyone that thinks I will voluntarily put a high-resolution, motion-tracking camera with a microphone and facial recognition, with an always-internet-connected potential backdoor in a corner of my living room has got another thing coming.

It's not a matter of having something to hide or not. It's just one of those undefinable "Fuck you, that's why." type things.

I dont understand the big principal thing thats come to this anti-always online. Every single person I know have internet 24/7. So whats the big deal? And to say it doesnt stop piracy is also silly, ofc it wont stop it all together but alot of it. Just seem to be a big internet hype that always online is frown upon with no real reasoning behind it.

Give it 50 years when almost every rural household will have constant internet connection and then things would be fine. But until then you would be cutting out a lot of potential sales, especially in europe.

I dont understand the big principal thing thats come to this anti-always online. Every single person I know have internet 24/7. So whats the big deal? And to say it doesnt stop piracy is also silly, ofc it wont stop it all together but alot of it. Just seem to be a big internet hype that always online is frown upon with no real reasoning behind it.

Lets say your internet company cuts out your internet for 4hours because they have a problems....you cant use internet on computer, you cant use phone and you cant use TV too watch programs.
Now think you cant use the console because of this!
Thats the main problem. If net goes down i usualy turn on the playstation. So i dont die of boredom in rainy/snowy days.

I dont understand the big principal thing thats come to this anti-always online. Every single person I know have internet 24/7. So whats the big deal? And to say it doesnt stop piracy is also silly, ofc it wont stop it all together but alot of it. Just seem to be a big internet hype that always online is frown upon with no real reasoning behind it.

Every person you do, but for someone like me, and a majority of others in Australia and other countries we have quite shit internet and we dont always have internet 24/7. As it stands microsoft will lose a big part of the market to ps4 if they go through with this because of aforementioned reason.

If it requires internet to always be on for important things, like actually playing games, then I won't bother.
If it requires internet to always be on for stuff like updates, social networks, whatever, stuff that isn't that important, seeing a console is for playing games, then it's fine.

As long as I can play my games uninterrupted except from power loss.

But I've yet to have any reason to get the next Xbox or any console at all, so I've yet to worry about that.

"Reminds me of a dog. You stare at it while it's playing outside, running around in a circle, then stopping up, wagging with a wide "grin", jumping around until you call for the dog. Then it lowers its tail because it think it's done something bad and then you throw the ball, seeing the tail go straight into the air in bliss! ^^" - Gehco

I have a pretty stable net connection, so on a practical level it wouldn't make a great deal of difference having to be online all the time.

What will make or break it will be if always online actually brings any benefits.
If it's being done purely as a DRM thing, with very few extra features for the user then it absolutely cannot be justified. There would need to be some incentive for it to be worth the restrictions.

My reasoning behind this is that on it's own DRM simply does not work, it is not fit for purpose, it never has been, it never will be. People will find ways to bypass it just for the lulz, not even for financial gain. People who want to make loads of money selling pirate copies will bypass it. People who really just want to bypass it will be pass it, just so they don't have to deal with DRM.
If they're going to force DRM down the throats of people who can't or don't want to bypass it they're going to need to provide extra features. If these features are good enough then maybe people will accept the DRM in order to get them. The only way to get everyone to accept what they are doing is to tie it to something that everyone wants. Like some kind of dystopian society where everything is awesome, but your actions are completely controlled by whoever is running the show.

Just seem to be a big internet hype that always online is frown upon with no real reasoning behind it.

Your internet goes down for a day or so or you lose connection for a minute? Too bad, can't play single player games.
Microsofts servers or ISP have an issue? Can't play any of your games, sorry.

Basically if provides no benefits for consumers. It only provides hassles. We've seen how launches work with every MMO as well as D3 and SimCity. Imagine that, but with every game. Even now, games have server troubles from time to time, meaning that you can't play that game for an hour or so while they sort it. Imagine that for every game.

Always on DRM is a tool to further remove control of a product from consumers and place it in the hands of publishers, without providing any tradeoff benefit in return. There is no comparable form of copyright protection in any other industry anywhere, even the movie and music industries. And those two are as proactive in trying to get rid of piracy as the gaming industry is.

Redit: And it will be cracked after a while (a few years or so), meaning that the "hardcore" pirates will likely be able to freely pirate anyways. So in the end, it's only really the honest consumers that get shit on.

I dont understand the big principal thing thats come to this anti-always online. Every single person I know have internet 24/7. So whats the big deal? And to say it doesnt stop piracy is also silly, ofc it wont stop it all together but alot of it. Just seem to be a big internet hype that always online is frown upon with no real reasoning behind it.

there is plenty of reasoning, first being that it is completely unnecessary to have the requirement, there is literally NOTHING you get out of being required to be online, you are paying to get a brick. It doesn't really matter that everyone you know has internet most the time, you don't know everyone. It doesn't stop piracy, not even a little bit, especially when comparing the costs.

I was intending on getting the next-gen X-Box up until I heard about the always online requirement. My internet is inconsistent at best. Even though it's almost always on, it's really slow 33% of the time and disconnects are fairly common.

Besides that, all my online games are on PC. All my X-Box games are single player, and if they have multiplayer options, I never use them. I don't have X-Box live on my current X-Box 360.

Most of the games I like are available on Playstation systems as well, so if the always online thing goes through, it's an easy PS4 purchase for me.

This is one of the major reasons I dislike so many of the games that are now steam games. With some you can still get older versions that will play without any need for the internet but others make you log in which is just idiotic.

why do people still try to use this argument against steam? every steam game that s not multiplayer only works in offline mode, ive used it for years just like countless others.

I've been playing on Xbox Live for so long that I don't mind if next lolbox requires constant internet connection. X-360 was perfect in all ways, been playing w/ it since release so why would I suddenly hop in to the ps4 or wiiu train? Bitch please. All consoles are good in their own way and if I'd win a lottery I'd get them all. For now I have to cling with only one and it's made by microsoft.